PRESS RELEASES

State House Rally this Thursday

Budget Cuts Threaten Mental Health Consumers

November 27, 2001 -- Belmont, MA -- The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health will have its budget slashed and many community-based programs that help hundreds of citizens with psychiatric illness could be forced to close if Gov. Jane Swift approves the Legislature's proposed FY02 budget.

If this budget passes:

	$1.1 million will be cut from child and adolescent mental health services.
	58 children and adolescents will be discharged to the community without support.
	Nine adult inpatient hospital wards will close and 170 inpatients will be discharged without care.
	174 currently occupied residential beds will be eliminated, leaving adults who occupy those beds without a place to go.
	469 active DMH hospital employees will be laid off.
	160 formerly homeless adults with serious mental illness will be left out on the street.

This grim future does
not have to become a reality:

Stand up and
let your voice be heard!

Thursday, Nov. 29

1 pm

Massachusetts State House

For further details, please call McLean Hospital at 617-855-2110 or the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Massachusetts at 781-938-4048.